Infodumping your special interest!

Post Reply New Topic

I think a lot of us have been in situations where someone makes the mistake of bringing up our special interest, and suddenly the effort you'd put into holding your tongue goes down the drain. There you are once again, rambling endlessly about the thing you love that nobody else cares about for some reason and everyone gets angry at you even though you never meant to cause trouble?? I mean... everyone talks about the things they love this much, right? Wait, it's rude? But I thought you really liked that one thing... oh... I'm being creepy and rude... okay...

I guess this thread is to talk about your experiences with infodumping whether positive or negative. I'll start.

1. One of my special interests (it's almost like a background special interest - I don't actively obsess over it or seek out information, but it's constantly there and I will infodump like crazy if you aren't careful) is art/drawing. A lot of times I'll maybe find something old I drew that I'd forgotten about, and start telling the story behind it and why I drew it and how my art's changed since then. It's solely because I have a thing about documenting stuff and even if the rest of my life is an unorganized, trash-filled mess (*glances around my room nervously*) I keep all my old art stored pretty much in the order I drew it - a reason I'm glad I never deleted my old deviantART. I've never had anyone say so but I do worry I come across as tooting my own horn or being all preachy about art improvement or whatever, when really I'm just infodumping and can't shut up about drawing!

2. In first grade we had this thing like every week where in the morning we'd have show and tell. One of my earliest special interests was marbles - I had this probably ten-pound bag I brought to school for show and tell and I clearly remember talking in a monotone voice for at least ten minutes about these marbles I was so excited about (a similar incident occurred with my LEGO Bionicle figures who were basically my imaginary friends at the time) and I went on for so long the teacher had to stop me. Throughout the day, even during quiet time, I would raise my hand and the teacher would call on me and I'd say something about marbles, lol. I didn't even know much about marbles, other than the fact that they were pretty and I'd assigned personalities to them (the big ones were like, super high ranking in their little marble society) and got super attached to my collection.

3. On a more embarrassing note, Portal and Half-life 2 were my obsessions in middle school and I'd quite literally roleplay them throughout the day, yeah. I'd go up to people doing GLaDOS impressions which... didn't always (read: never) go over so well. In 7th grade my attention shifted to Star Trek and I'd go through the day pretending I was an undercover Starfleet officer that was super respected onboard the Enterprise. I remember one of my friends and a teacher friend or two was kinda in on it. It was a bit silly but it helped me cope with bullying - those mean girls wouldn't dare bother me again after receiving a Vulcan nerve pinch, and the boys would finally respect me when I saved the school from Klingons or the Borg or something, hah.

4. In 8th grade my interest was cars and even though I didn't know much in terms of technical stuff, I knew a lot of brands and I remember being particularly attracted to Range Rovers and Subaru Imprezas. I'd make little car characters (think Pixar's "Cars") and assign personalities to the cars I saw on the road. I'd give people cars based on their personalities. Most people thought this was creepy and weird especially when I'd infodump about it. Though I remember my art and English teacher thought it was pretty neat and creative. I even made a painting of my art teacher as a car cos I'd seen his car in the parking lot cos it had his last name on it. It turns out it was actually his mom's cos his mom worked at the school too, but he loved it all the same.

Wow, I've just infodumped about... infodumping!

Feel free to share your stories and memories.

I love writing, well not in english because i do not master the language enough, in fact i'm pretty sure i did several mistakes just in this sentence.
I especially like writing dialogues or monologues, interestingly enough i really don't like writing descriptions, because i find them too vague and prone to changes.
And about that, of all the fiction i wrote, i have presented very few of it to my friends, i has to be perfect before i show it to anyone, lucky for me, i always get positive results.
I think the secret, which isn't really one, is to be perfectionist, let the characters do the talk, i mean it feels like you don't have to do nothing and your hand just hover on the keyboard and your fingers land on the right keys.
It's really highly pleasuring.
But when you know how to write, you spot every mistake, and while it's disturbing to see this, it's also a great feeling to help others to get things right.

I enjoyed reading your post. It's an infodump, but information is like crack to us auties.

I wish I was so aware of my feelings when I was 19.

I read your post 3 times and have this to say, just keep drawing and go with your art. What people say does not matter, and our feelings change as we age, or more accurately they change as we drift along.
Stick with your art, it's a great outlet to express yourself and your skills will only improve.

First, I don't even need a special interest to do info dumping, I'll do it with crap I'm not even all that interested in but just happen to know. To be honest, I'm not even sure if I know how not to info dump.

There was a thread a while back that was about memory and as I explained there, my memory works like a spiderweb-- if one string has information, it gets plucked and all the strings tied to it get pulled through my mind. Example: "Would you like a hamburger?" my mind-- potato, rain forest, Crete, constellation, even-toed ungulate. Yeah, I know what you're thinking: wtf?

Each of those just needs interpreted: potato is needed for fries which are a traditional side dish of hamburger, the rain forests in Brazil are being eradicated to provided grazing land for beef, ancient Crete was the location of the Minotaur a half bovine half human hybrid, Gilgamesh killed the bull of heaven who appeared from the constellation Taurus (cow), and even-toed ungulates are the order of mammals that cows come from.

That's why I say, when you have to wade through all that info, it becomes really hard not to info dump to get from point A to point B. So my experience with info dumping is it's not cool with other people, just about ever, because it's pure information that comes off "arrogant" and "smarty pants" when it's not even really like that, I literally have to do it to complete a thought.

^^^Yeah, I also do not need to have a special interest to info-dump. That is just the way that I operate.

Someone mentions something that I know a bit about, and I will just go on and on about everything I know regarding the subject.

And I do the "spider web" associating, too. Something will pop into my head that has very little relation to what's being discussed. Well, it does have a connection, actually, but it's only relevant to me. And then I will seemingly randomly start talking about whatever has popped into my mind, much to the confusion of the poor person with whom I'm speaking.

That's one of the reasons I've been called an encyclopedia, or told that I should be a professor.

Yeah our brains naturally store information mnemonically. Most people have to train to do what ours do. It's a great gift, but as this discussion highlights, also a great curse.

While most of my infodumping is in regards to my special interests I do understand where you're coming from. I remember I was having the typical "ugh these chip cards" conversation with a customer while I was still working retail and I started rambling about the bank and about my own card and etc etc. Said customer literally turned and stormed away from me. That was kind of embarrassing. ^^;

My mom often accuses me of monopolizing the conversation at dinner cos I talk to my dad a lot, but in a lot of social situations, most of the time I clam up, mostly out of fear of creating hostile/unpleasant responses such as the one listed above. Most of my verbal infodumping was when I was a very hyperactive kid. I'm a lot quieter in real life, mostly from years of bullying. I'll infodump my heart out on the internet though.

When someone asks me a question, though, is where I have trouble - I sometimes forget that most people just want a "yes" "no" or quick, one-sentence answer, not an epic speech. Someone asked me what the different color Star Trek uniforms mean, and I wrote probably two paragraphs before deleting them cos they probably just wanted the 5-word answer!

I wanna infodump, default to discussing, i don't know why you want to talk talking infodump ?

my this and that infodump:
Preserve susceptible worms. A population of susceptible worms needs to be maintained to dilute the resistant worm population and reduce the speed of AR development on farms. This is done by making sure all the worms on your farm are not exposed to a wormer or are ‘in refugia’ when you treat. To preserve ‘in refugia worms’:
Some animals in the flock can be left untreated so they continue to produce susceptible eggs.
Consider if leaving 10% of the flock untreated is feasible.
Be careful when you dose and move. If you dose all the flock then move them to clean pasture, all the worm eggs shed will be from any surviving resistant worms. This means only resistant worms will build up on the new pasture which speeds the development of resistance.

but hey, you must talk real stuff like too many refugees or the complete ufo-sightings

I have three modes of operation:

1.) Info dump on special interests
2.) Can info dump (for reason) at odd times on things that should not be released. The 'Too Much Information' and sometimes, too much personal information. I get stuck on what I am calling 'clarification loops' where I am so busy trying to make myself clear, that crap just starts leaking out and I cannot stop and it becomes a big rambling mess of things and I want to stop but I can't and it gets worse when I get nervous, which is about all the time when I am around people, and worse, when I get nervous, because I'm male, it has side effects that are embarrassing and can give the wrong idea when mr. happy decides to join in the conversation.........ooooooohhhhhh, too much information...
^^^^^That was a written example of what happens to me. But, I cannot stop and it gets worse when I try to stop.

3.) Total conversational shutdown because I'm too aware of this happening and this is the only way for me to regulate either

I infodump all the time, sometimes without even realizing it.

Yes, I can totally identify with those thoughts. I can get very flustered if I realise that I've gone off on a tangent and can't find a way to get back to what I was really trying to get across.


I get that too. I have been told directly quite a few times that when people converse with me, they feel as if they can "hear the cogs in the machine working". I can't ever seem to tell anyone my opinion of a subject without explicitly working through the options and offering an explanation why each one is accepted or rejected.

Been told they can see the 'smoke coming out of my ears from the gears working too fast." But, yeah, I have to do the complete justification thing myself. Even got accused as a kid of 'doing a sales presentation' every time I wanted something. I thought I was just being logical and prepared.

How did/do you respond to teachers or paras that want speed instead of thoroughness in school projects?

I would respond by saying that sometimes speed is the thoroughness instead of perfection. I mean, I get it. Makes me absolutely crazy. But the real world dictates some things get done many times quickly instead of getting done perfectly.

But, what drives me crazy is artificial deadlines. Don't tell me you need something on Monday when you will give it back for four days with changes that should have been decided before it even gets to me. I mean, I like to work, but it drives me crazy. Would rather get it done right and then move on. That indecision and making me hurry did not help. And, it also cost them more instead of a bit of forethought.

The first thing that came to mind was a speech I made one of my special interests for class a couple years ago. I did a really thorough Prezi with a lot of good information only to realize with a sinking heart that I was waaay over the 10-minute time limit. So, I had to cut a whole lot out. I got a 95 on said project, but it still felt incomplete and like I could have given people a much better understanding, dang it!! *clenches fist*

So I guess my answer is that I'd have to have some time to really structure what I'm gonna do/say, otherwise I'll start infodumping only to have to cut myself off all awkwardly because I realize I've failed the "speed" thing.

Over the years I've kinda made a mini-script about my special interests that I'll say just to kinda blow them off and hopefully change the subject ("oh yeah it's my favorite band, but yeah [tries to push conversation away]") but any further questioning will lead to an infodump. It's the thing I have the most hard time controlling.

Time limits in 1 to 7 assignments is
"Interesting"